Blue Heron Senior Living’s New Wing Is Just Part Of The Community’s Appeal

Chris Tomko of Senior Helpers (left) explains how the Virtual Dementia Tour works to Christopher Dobard at Blue Heron Senior Living in Wesley Chapel. 

Although my mom isn’t suffering from any of the 180 different forms of dementia, I was happy to attend the “Virtual Dementia Tour” put on by Senior Helpers at Blue Heron Senior Living in Wesley Chapel on July 16. 

I honestly believe that whether you know or think someone you love has Alzheimer’s disease or any other type of dementia, the Virtual Dementia Tour will give you a new perspective on the diverse variety of problems most of us will deal with as we age, regardless of our whether or not our mental faculties ever diminish (more on this event below). 

I also know that Blue Heron, owned and managed by TLC Management, is the only assisted living and memory care facility in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel that also offers skilled nursing for rehab or long-term care. Hosting events like the Virtual Dementia Tour just adds to the appeal of this 159,000-sq.-ft. residence where the opportunity to “age in place” has kept it near capacity since it first opened in 2021. 

The new dining area in the newly expanded skilled nursing wing at Blue Heron. 

“Our current occupancy is 100% in both long-term care and memory care and 90% in rehab,” says Blue Heron’s executive director Meagan Kopstad, “but we do have a couple of rooms available right now on the assisted living side.” 

Blue Heron’s skilled nursing area added a new wing last year, “with 37 additional patient beds, bringing us up to 141 total,” says community relations director Lilly Gonzalez. “Those new beds are divided between the first and second floor — 18 on the first floor (for rehab) and 19 on the second floor (for long-term care).” 

She adds, “We couldn’t hold our planned Grand Opening of the new wing last October because of the hurricanes that hit the area. In other words, your readers have never seen the new wing in print before.” 

The new wing also includes a new dining area (photo above), a new patient lounge and a new nurses’ station. 

With the expansion, Blue Heron Wesley Chapel now has a total of 248 residential units — 95 assisted living, 22 private memory care and the 141 skilled nursing units. 

About The Virtual Dementia Tour 
Neighborhood News editor Gary Nager admits that he failed the VDT miserably & got a better understanding of the lives of our elderly.

Blue Heron brought in Senior Helpers, the nation’s leading provider of in-home senior care, with more than 400 locations across the U.S., including a local location serving New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, to host the Virtual Dementia Tour (VDT). Senior Helpers is certified to bring the VDT to Blue Heron and other assisted living facilities and, in just a few minutes, the tour definitely gave me new insight into the lives of the elderly. 

VDT participants put provided inserts in their shoes with plastic pegs that push into your feet to simulate painful neuropathies. 

You also put on glasses that blur your vision, similar to how cataracts affect your eyes. You also have to put on thick, heavy work gloves that significantly reduce your manual dexterity. And finally, you put on headphones that make it a lot more difficult to hear. Anyone you know have any of these issues? 

You are then led into a room and given two tasks to do that would be simple for the average person to complete, but you are only given the instructions once, all while wearing the headphones. Pretty much everyone, including yours truly, fails the VDT miserably. But in doing so, you can clearly see (once you take off the glasses, that is) how difficult the most mundane tasks can become. 

This five-minute test is pretty much guaranteed to help you become more empathetic to your elderly loved ones — I know it’s helped me better understand some of the things my mom is dealing with — and the VDT is just one of many free programs Blue Heron brings in for both its residents and members of the community. 

One of the spacious private bathrooms in the newly expanded skilled nursing wing at Blue Heron. 

The next such free event is being held on Wednesday, August 27, 10:30 a.m.- noon, and is called “Charting Your Course: Protecting Yourself, Your Loved Ones & Your Legacy.” Board-Certified Elder Law attorney Ed Spinks, a partner with Florida Elder Law & Legacy Planning, will lead the discussion so you can learn how to legally protect yourself, your family and your assets. “This is an essential first step in the estate-planning process and will help you take control of your future with confidence.” 

Blue Heron also offers amazing amenities for all of its residents, like beautiful, enclosed courtyards and gardens, lounges, family rooms & dining rooms with delicious meals, a pub, a theater, a salon/spa, computers, internet and cable TV, a private dining room for family gatherings, an art studio and a wonderful life enrichment center with fun programs. 

There’s always something to do for Blue Heron residents, where your loved ones can find compassion, companionship and care. 

For more information about Blue Heron Senior Living (5071 Eagleston Blvd., Wesley Chapel), call (813) 454-0513, or visit SeniorLivingAtBlueHeron.com. 

Big USF Alzheimer’s Study Looking For Volunteers

Jerri Edwards, Ph.D.

A team of professors at the University of South Florida (USF) has a new weapon to fight Alzheimer’s disease and dementia — a $44.3-million grant for the next five years to continue a study that has shown some positive results.

Jerri Edwards, Ph.D., a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurosciences at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, is heading up the school’s Preventing Alzheimer’s with Cognitive Training (aka “PACT”) study. 

Dr. Edwards says the grant could help finally find a way to prevent Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, which are among the most expensive medical conditions to treat — along with heart disease, diabetes and cancer. These diseases also are becoming more and more common.

“Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia are an increasing public health crisis,” Dr. Edwards says. “One in every nine persons 65 and older have Alzheimer’s disease right now and the prevalence of the disease increases with age. It could be that as many as 33 percent of people 85-plus have dementia. We’re living longer so that means the prevalence of Alzheimer’s is increasing exponentially.”

Edwards and many of her colleagues have been investigating an intervention commonly known as brain training for the past decade. “It is the first intervention ever shown in a randomized clinical trial to reduce the risk of dementia,” she says. “So, we’re very excited.”

Brain training is basically using computerized programs to train the cognitive abilities of participants. The trial, called the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent & Vital Elderly (ACTIVE), had more than 2,800 healthy older adults ages 65 and older participating.

The trial was essentially focused on the functional ability of older adults when it came to things like managing their finances, driving and going grocery shopping — essential tasks required to remain independent with age.

“Dementia essentially is diagnosed when you lose that functional ability,” Dr. Edwards says. 

That study, after 10 years, showed that participants had a 29-48 percent lower incidence of dementia than people who received no training.

The PACT study will be expanded to across the U.S. at five different sites and will be enrolling 7,600 older adults.

“We really believe this intervention can reduce people’s chances — reduce their risks — of Alzheimer’s disease,” Edwards says. “It’s a very exciting opportunity to be a leader in the field here at USF and engaging our Tampa Bay community area.”

Dr. Edwards encourages anyone healthy and age 65 and older in Wesley Chapel and New Tampa to participate in the PACT study. She says that one of the goals of the study is to have a diverse sample. She also says that blacks are twice as likely as other adults to get Alzheimer’s, and Hispanics are 1.5 times as likely, yet both are typically less willing to participate in clinical studies.

Participants will be screened and tested during their first two visits — at a choice of the Cognitive Aging Lab on USF’s Tampa campus off E. Fletcher Ave., the St. Petersburg campus, as well as at locations in Lakeland and Winter Haven in Polk County — and will be asked to continue the brain training for three years at home.

“We really need people who are interested in joining the fight against Alzheimer’s disease,” Dr. Edwards says. “We need healthy, older adults 65-plus willing to do that. It’s low burden — we’re asking for a three-year commitment.”

If you want to volunteer for the PACT study, call (813) 974-6703, or visit PACTStudy.org.